The next event
Date: 25 February
Times: 17.30 - 20:00*
Venue: Christian Aid Head Office, 35 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, London SE1 7RL [map]**
*We had to vacate the building by 20:30 latest - but there was the option to continue in the pub!
**People were asked not to contact Christian Aid directly about this event. They have been kind enough to let us use a great space at their offices, but are not responsible for the organisation of the event and have got important work to do!
The venue
We were delighted that Christian Aid has kindly made their 'Forum' available free of charge for the February event. Many thanks indeed to Steven Buckley and Peter Berry at Christian Aid for their help and support.
The Forum is situated on the ground floor of Christian Aid's head offices in Waterloo, just off the main reception, and has a capacity for around 50-75 people, depending on the layout. Plans were to keep this 'café style', with groups of five or six people around small tables, to continue the informal, collaborative style of NFPtweetup.
Internet access
Unfortuntately, those attending were not be able to have personal access to WiFi through Christian Aid's network - as this was only available to members of staff. There was a PC rigged up to a projector - and a large screen to project onto - so we had somewhere to show the live Twitter stream during the event. A few of us brought our laptops, with dongles, so that we could tweet during the event, and from each discussion group. People who had a laptop with a dongle, could bring it along, or others tweeted from thier phone if they usually do.
Refreshments
Drinks and snacks were available during the event - kindly provided by Just Giving.
Agenda and format
When we had confirmation on our venue, we could better design the event based on the space and the facilities it has (which was pretty good!).
5.30 - 6.00pm Arrive, get your badge, grab a drink, have a chat, find a seat, and tweet!
6.00 - 6.05pm Welcome and introduction
6.05 - 6.15pm What is Twitter to you? Slideshow of thoughts, crowdsourced between now and the event [see below for info].
- The slideshow was shared online prior to the event.
- During the slideshow, we asked participants using Twitter to tweet their thoughts and questions about the ideas raised in the slides, or any other questions they had.
- Those at the event not yet using Twitter could have either posted their first tweet through the new NFPtweetup Twitter profile, or have it posted for them by @amyrsward, who took you through posting your first tweet, or did it for you. Any tweets posted containing #NFPtweetup were aggregated through @NFPtweetup and Hashtags.org/tag/NFPtweetup
6.15 - 6.30pm We aggregated questions from the Twitter stream and defined groups to explore these points around the main areas of interest. Each group were faciliated and the facilitator tweeted the questions, thoughts and ideas that come out of each group's session. Everyone using Twitter was asked to post at least one tweet from their session, sharing an insight or a take out from the discussion.
6.30 - 7.30pm Broke out into groups around areas of interest to explore questions, ideas, learn practical tips, learn about tools, hear from others about their experiences, share yours and tweet!
7.30 - 8.00pm Came back together and reviewed what we learned, and tweeted, and shared across groups and through Twitter stream to online participants.
8.00pm Vacated venue and made our way to pub/ restaurant/ bar with interesting people we had met at the NFPtweetup.
More information about how to take part online and follow groups will be added to this wiki before the event.
Collaborative slideshow
Between now and the event, we asked you to send in one slide with your take on the question, 'What is Twitter to you?'.
You could have sent your slides in with your Twitter profile ID or without - if you wanted it to be shown anonymously. It was also worth creating the content of the slide and saving it as a PDF or taking a screen shot and replacing the text and images with that, just because the formatting you wanted can change if you have different fonts installed.
We did a collaborate slideshow for the previous NFPtweetup [view it here], it was a lot of fun and a great way to kick off the conversation, so it was much appreciated that people took part and helped us to create a great set of resources to be shared and referenced online during and after the event.
Slides were sent to Rachel Beer. We needed to operate a strict deadline, so the slideshow could be pulled together in time for the NFPtweetup, so any slides had to be sent in by 5pm on 24 February.
How we set the date for this event
Feedback from the first NFPtweetup in November 08 was overwhelmingly in favour of quarterly events, so as this event was in February, we aimed for another in May.
We used this Doodle page to help us pick a date in February that worked for as many people as possible.
Comments (5)
Graham Richards said
at 2:48 pm on Dec 4, 2008
Hi Rachel,
We need to have a date to work towards. I'll follow up John at BullyingUK and see what we can find in our patch, then I'll use the Yorkshire IoF mailing and Twitter to publicise our NE tweetup. If you're looking at a Friday pm/eve in Jan/Feb, I'm OK at the moment.
Cheers
Graham
Rachel Beer said
at 5:12 pm on Dec 4, 2008
Absolutely. I just wanted to get people's agreement in principle before ploughing ahead with talk of dates - and I wanted to get the last few responses to the survey to see what views were on frequency. More on that tomorrow, when I have some time to evaluate and share it.
Ben Matthews said
at 6:06 pm on Dec 4, 2008
Hi Rachel,
for the South / South East, have you thought about people from Brighton? There should be some NFP tweeters down there, or at least some tweeters with NFP interests. Off the top of my head there's @tomnixon @fellowcreative @MrsPBoutique @sussexdigital ,but I'm sure there's many more!
Ben
Rachel Beer said
at 8:24 pm on Dec 4, 2008
Thanks Ben. That's a thought. I suppose there's a point at which too many gatherings of small amounts of people might fragment things so much that it almost becomes more practical, or just as valuable, to take the whole thing online... I'm just not sure... Do you want to post this on the Future events page above and see what interest it generates?
Rachel
Laura Whitehead said
at 10:22 am on Dec 5, 2008
I'm quite up for supporting getting Net Tuesdays off the ground down here in the South West. (not only Bristol area, but also Devon too and also Cornwall). Net Tuesdays cover a wide range of issues and development to help support groups. I think if we can get groups connecting, those who may use twitter thereon may be more wanting and able to break off into nfp tweetups; but down here, as in many 'out of London' and city areas, I wouldn't forsee (except possibly for Bristol area - though not from there nor work with grass roots orgs so unable to fully comment on potential participation levels) much interest and involvement as yet. Things/groups set up becuase there is a need, and not sure a tweet meet is a need as yet. I've attempted various tweet meets in the past down here (and will continue to do so, usually bi-monthly), and rurality often means low participation plus at present there aren't that many orgs using twitter as a medium to connect and share as yet; plenty of us supporters and helpers (freelancers and a few workers/champions within organisations) but still low for the wider mass of who I presume we're trying to engage. I've been exploring with a few groups on how far they would travel (Not far!) so have been exploring a north, mid and south Devon look at creating networking events to get groups together, share and learn with modern fangled media.
On my personal side I'd possibly travel to Bristol for a tweet meet, as the value of meeting people face to face supports me personally in my role, but not sure that would be the same view of a small organisation in a rural area. I did enjoy the NFP meet in London recently, which thankfully tied in with a date/time when up in London, and was fab to meet faces already knew, as well as so many more! Will attend if able and i vicinity in future. Cheers for organising btw!
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